Defiant Blade … The Adventure Continues

So here’s something that started several years ago and then stalled. Which is a familiar pattern with all of my projects in the past four or five years …

It started as a thought experiment, one of those ideas that lodges in my head and won’t let go until I start fleshing it out — at which point I continue getting new ideas for it and it just keeps going and going. I was pondering the Predator film series and how a lot of it was just the same thing over and over again. While Prey was a fresh take on the concept and Naru was a truly interesting character — so much that I’d love to see her in other stories whether they’re direct sequels or something else entirely — I still kept coming up with ideas for doing something different with it even after I saw the movie. Like, really different.

What came to mind several years ago was a Predator who hunts other Predators. Why? It started off simply enough: she hated them. Why did she hate them? A handful of them created her in a lab to give her an edge on normal Yautja, but despite coming up with the idea themselves and deciding to go forward with it, they couldn’t shake off the Yautja mentality that she was an abomination simply because she wasn’t natural. So they used training and sparring sessions as an excuse to kick the absolute shit out of her on a daily basis. And it didn’t take long for her to get fed up with it.

Among the improvements they made while engineering her, they gave her a massively boosted intellect. I figured it’d be similar to Star Trek‘s Augments, the most famous of which is Khan Noonien Singh. Except in this case, she’s not a total wacko, though she is kind of obsessed with vengeance in the beginning. Turns out they made her too smart for their own good, and she learned to hold herself back during sparring matches early on — to not even let them see a hint of her full capabilities while she memorized the locations of the armory and hangar and plotted her escape. When she was ready to kick things off, none of them saw it coming and she left a trail of dead bodies in her wake as she made her way to the hangar, stole a ship, and hauled ass out of there.

I already had a rather long post about this back in 2021, including the story I’d written until it finally fizzled out, so I won’t rehash all of it here. (But if you haven’t seen that post, check it out so you’ll be caught up when the scene starts below.) I went back to it about a year or so ago and continued working on it off and on, and finally finished one more scene. It’s a long scene, but still, that was as far as I got before I got derailed again. It’s been just sitting on my hard drive ever since then, so I figured I’d stick it up here. Previously, it kind of fizzled out while I was writing the scene in which Defiant Blade discovered that a friend of hers — and his family — were about to be attacked by a Yautja. I finally managed to tweak a few bits and continue from there, so here’s that scene from the beginning, and this time I managed to actually finish it.

Then I ran into another mental wall and haven’t progressed any farther with it. If I’m lucky, this’ll jog something loose and I’ll be able to continue, assuming I don’t keep getting pulled back to another project I’ve been working on …

“What the hell is this?” Blade stared at the old music video on her monitor, shook her head, and returned her attention to the gadget she’d been assembling. “Wet Ass-Pussy? Is that a birth defect?”

Carson’s laugh erupted from the speakers. “I barely remember the song, but I think it’s called Wet-Ass Pussy. Probably means she’s horny or something. I dunno.”

“Ah. Well, I can relate to that.”

“Hmm. Right now, you mean?”

“Whenever I’m talking to you.” Or even thinking about you.

“The feeling’s mutual.” He laughed.

She finished the component, put the cover on, and wired it into her new bio-helmet. She’d decided to try to make herself more expressive without revealing her face, so she’d designed a new helmet that reacted to her mood and projected appropriate holographic emoji in the air around her head. It also had a pair of cat ears on top that she’d added just for shits and giggles. The ears could change their angle slightly as they reacted to her mood to a limited extent.

She put the helmet on and tested it by imagining Carson with his shirt off. A swarm of red hearts appeared around her, accompanied by a bubbling sound. As her thoughts grew more explicit, a pair of hands appeared and performed the “docking” gesture, followed by a googly-eyed emoji making an “O” face. She laughed softly.

This should be fun. Or awkward, depending on the situation.

“So, what’re you up to?” Carson said.

She described the holo-projector and decided to demonstrate it for him. She was already naked, so she turned her camera on, moved her hands between her legs, and prepared to give him a show.

Typing sounds came from the speakers and a text message appeared on the nearby monitor: My parents are right in front of me!

Blade’s heart twitched and a blushing emoji appeared beside her head. She jumped from the chair, darted over to the chainmail loincloth and halter she’d left draped over a console, and put them on before returning to her seat.

Humans have such weird hangups. Oh, well, when in Rome and all that shit.

“Holographic emojis, eh? That’s really cool.” Carson had a grin in his voice. “And those cat ears are adorable.”

“Thanks. So, what’s going on with you?”

“Parents took me and my little sister on a family trip. I’m thinking it’s a midlife crisis.” He laughed and a woman’s voice with a Latina accent came in faintly.

“Eat shit.” She snickered.

“I love you, too, Mom.” Carson chuckled. “Anyway, we’ve been driving across the country in their new RV. Right now we’re passing through Monument Valley.”

What? Her heart rate increased again. She glanced over at the images from her patrol drones on the tactical station’s monitors. One of them had an elongated land vehicle speeding along a lonely road through the desert. He’s right here! He’s within reach!

She tried to slow her breathing.

“They wanted to see the rock formations here up close,” Carson continued. “Which I’m okay with. They’re pretty cool.”

I can’t. I have to stay hidden. A familiar alert sounded and she let out a relieved sigh. Another Yautja. At least that gives me an excuse to stay away from …

Her drones sent the target’s location in.

No …

The distortion on one of her monitors was bigger than a drop pod and smaller than a scout. It also appeared to be cruising along much closer to the ground than it should’ve been.

And it was following the RV. For now, it was keeping its distance, but that wouldn’t last long.

Why the hell is a Yautja hunting a civilian family? From what she’d learned of their rules of engagement, they didn’t hunt someone who was unarmed or too young. This one appeared to be willing to violate that rule.

Defiant Blade prepped her ship for liftoff and sprinted to the armory.

“Uh, DB?” Carson’s voice came from the console up in the cockpit as she threw her armor on and booted up its systems. “Is something wrong? It sounded like you just bolted out of the room.”

“This is gonna sound insane, but you’re all in danger!” DB slotted her weapons into her armor and charged back to the cockpit. “Look out the window. Up and behind you. Look for a distortion in the air.”

She dropped into the pilot’s seat, steered her ship toward the waypoint her drone had set, and pushed the throttle to maximum.

“I think … I think I see something. There’s a sort of rippling in the air. Looks like heat waves, but only in a small patch of the sky.”

“That’s a stealth system on a … aw, hell, I’ll explain later. For now, just find someplace to take cover.”

“What the hell’s going on?” Carson’s mother, this time. “Is this one of your videos?”

“No, this is real! I’ll prove it. Keep your eyes straight ahead.” She maneuvered her ship directly in front of the oncoming RV and deactivated her cloak. The RV swerved before straightening out.

“Jesus Christ!” Carson’s dad screamed.

DB kept her attention on the enemy ship’s distortion as it veered off. A target-lock alarm blared.

Oh, no you don’t! Her ship’s cyberwarfare suite attempted to jam the Yautja’s targeting system while she tried to maneuver into optimal firing position and lock on.

“What the fuck was that?” Carson’s mother shouted.

“Keep following the road and then steer toward that big rock column. There’s an opening you can drive through. You’ll be safe there. I’ll keep that bastard off you until you …”

“Whatever weird-ass game you’re playing, we’re not gonna …”

“This isn’t a game!” DB’s quarry changed course abruptly, barrel-rolled, and shot past her. “Fuck! You’ve got incoming!”

She managed to get the other ship in her sights long enough to disrupt its cloak with her plasma cannons. Parts of the enemy ship rippled in and out of sight just as it opened fire and strafed the RV. Her hit on the other ship knocked its aim off but one plasma bolt nailed the RV’s left-rear tire. A cacophony of screams burst from the speakers as the tire and the surrounding part of the vehicle exploded and the rest of it rolled onto its side and slid another fifty or sixty feet.

An icy fist gripped DB’s heart and she let out an enraged roar. She continued firing on the enemy ship, nailing several solid hits even as it twisted and turned. She kept at it, scoring hit after hit, and finally its cloak failed, revealing a ship large enough for two people at most.

Gotcha, bitch! DB locked on and dropped a missile. A point-defense turret on the target’s rear popped up and fired a stream of tiny plasma bolts until several of them struck the missile and detonated it in the air. DB swerved around the shrapnel and swung back in time to see the other ship set down. The canopy opened and two Yautja scrambled out and activated their personal cloaks.

No, no, no! DB dropped her ship down near them and let its engines stir up a dust storm. The whirling sand disrupted their stealth systems enough to keep them fading in and out of view.

She rotated her ship, accelerated, and plowed it right the fuck into them.

“Boop!”

One launched straight ahead and the other bounced over her canopy and tumbled across the dorsal surface. She watched the rear external cameras until he fell into the exact right spot – then she throttled the main engines up and cooked the son of a bitch for a second in the drive plume before its thrust flung him astern as if he’d been fired from a potato gun.

She found the Yautja who’d been thrown forward, hovered above him, and cut upward thrust to zero. Her ship slammed down on him and sent up a gigantic puff of sand. The violent jolt bounced her ass right off her chair and dropped her on the floor. She scrambled back to her feet, lifted off, and turned back in the general direction the other Yautja had been launched. She caught a glimpse of a shallow crater and a huge, glowing, yellow-green splat as she moved off to find her remaining prey.

A glance at the external cameras showed Carson’s family climbing out of the wrecked RV. All of them appeared to have only minor injuries, but now they were fully out in the open. She caught a glimpse of a large pistol in Carson’s mother’s right hand as she helped him and his sister get back on their feet.

Huh. Maybe that’s why they were being hunted. She must be military or police. DB changed her mind about running down the other Yautja and set her ship down a few dozen feet from the humans. She opened the boarding ramp, ran down it, and waved her hands to get their attention.

Carson and his sister gaped at her while their father slid to the ground and their mother kneeled beside him, bracing her left hand on his shoulder and glancing around frantically as if looking for a target to point her gun at.

DB jogged over to them while zooming in on the other Yautja’s general location.

Where’d he go? I’m not going to count him out until I’m holding his severed fucking head in my hands.

“DB?” Carson stumbled toward her. “Are you … I mean, is this …?”

“I’ll explain everything once you’re safe. Get into my ship. You’ll be much better protected in there.”

His father pushed himself back to his feet, started to say something, and glanced abruptly off to the right.

Oh, shit! DB spun to face the same direction in time to catch a glimpse of something long and thin and metal before it slammed into her chest. It didn’t penetrate her armor but the impact flung her backward several feet and dropped her flat on her back. She picked herself up and planted herself between Carson’s family and the general direction the spear had come from.

She pulled her sniper rifle from the clip on her back and called out to the humans again.

“Stay behind me but make your way to the ship. I’ll cover you.” DB tapped buttons on her wristcomp, directing her nearest drones to help her scan for her prey.

“This can’t be happening,” Carson’s dad mumbled, and Carson threw his hands up.

“Well, it is! Just do as she says!” He stood directly behind DB and put his hands on her shoulders. “Form a line behind me and move with us. Whenever you’re ready, Blade.”

She nodded and sidled toward her ship, scanning the area ahead, watching for the slightest movement or distortion. Carson’s hands remained on her shoulders and multiple shuffling footsteps from behind reassured her that all of them were finally following her commands.

Three of her drones highlighted the same vaguely Yautja-shaped distortion in her HUD, pinning down his location a few hundred feet away, off to the left. She glanced to the right and saw the ramp was only a couple of yards away.

“When I start shooting, all of you run up the ramp. I’ll close it behind you before I finish that bastard off.” She painted him with her targeting laser and pulled the trigger. “Go!”

She continued firing as their footsteps pounded up the ramp, then paused long enough to tap the button on her wristcomp that would seal her ship up. She resumed firing and half of her shots missed as her target dodged back and forth, but the rest struck him and disrupted his cloak.

One of her drones zoomed in and she noticed he was wearing more armor than the typical Yautja she’d faced before. It prevented any of her shots from reaching his skin, but heat buildup would become a problem before much longer.

The flickering, half-visible shape grew larger as her prey charged. DB aimed at the ground and fired several times to kick up a big puff of dirt and dust – then she whipped her discblade out and threw it. She snapped her rifle back up and drilled another half-dozen plasma bolts into his chest as he approached.

His chest plate had begun to glow red-hot, yet it hadn’t slowed him down.

An idea took shape and DB one-handed the sniper rifle while using her other arm to change the discblade’s course. She kept softening the armor on her prey’s chest while the discblade arched around for a run straight at him.

Once he was too close for the sniper rifle, she clipped it to her back and grabbed her combistick. He yanked a huge knife from his belt as he closed the gap between them and thrust it at her, aiming for the softer parts of her armor at the elbows and neck. She jumped backward as a warning from the discblade flashed in her HUD – and she lunged to the right, letting it zip past her and slice into the half-melted spot on his chest plate.

It sawed through and dug into his chest. He let out another deafening roar, stumbled, and lunged at her again. She deflected his knife with her combistick and he staggered and clutched at the disc as it sank deeper into his chest. DB held her stick with both hands, wound up, and smashed it into the side of his head. The impact dislodged his bio-helmet and she swung the stick again, connecting hard enough to knock the mask clean off.

The discblade reached his heart and DB motioned with her free hand, directing the blade to turn left and continue cutting at a different angle. Her prey roared again, more high-pitched and panicked this time, and she laughed.

That’s what you get for trying to hurt my friends.

He dropped the knife and scrabbled at his chest with both hands, trying desperately to grasp the disc.

DB cocked her combistick back and rammed it through his left eye, putting the full weight of her body behind it, and the tip blasted straight through his head and out the back of his skull. He collapsed, moaning, still clinging to life.

Easy enough to correct. DB braced one foot on his shoulder and pried upward. His skull split horizontally with a series of sickening wet crunches and tore wide open. She yanked her stick out and the upper half of his brain plopped onto the ground. She lifted his limp hand and used it to wipe his blood off the stick before she slotted it back into her armor, then she used his other hand to clean off the discblade.

She opened a channel to the ship and took the wristcomp off her prey’s left arm.

“Almost done out here. I’ll let you know when I’m going to open the hatch so it won’t startle you.” She removed the dead Yautja’s belt, picked up the knife and slid it into the sheath, and slung the belt over her shoulder. She yoinked the rest of his gear, drew her sword, and chopped his fucking head off. She bagged it and jogged over to the mudhole her ship had stomped in the ground.

Now that she could get a closer look at the first Yautja’s remains, she noticed what was left of the body was nearly twice the other’s size. This one had been a female.

Ah. Maybe these two were a couple. Could be why they were working together. She picked up the smashed head and chuckled at how easily it detached from the rest of the body. She dropped it into the sack, collected the gear that could be salvaged, and headed back to her ship.

“I’m opening the door now. Stand by.”

So that’s where it left off a year or more ago. I’ve got a number of other ideas for this jumbled around in my head, some of which came from conversations with the same friend I’ve done a ton of brainstorming with lots of other times. Since one of the driving ideas behind Defiant Blade is that the Yautja probably aren’t all on the same page and there might be a few who go off on their own tangents rather than hunting other sapient life forms and trying to impress everyone else for breeding rights or some damn thing.

One other character that came to mind during the last brainstorming session was a Yautja who has a personality that’s very similar to The Dude. His brain was just always wired up very differently from the average Yautja’s, so he wasn’t interested in any of the usual pursuits. When the time for his first hunt came, he landed on Earth some time in the nineteenth century, hid his ship, ripped out anything that could be used to track him down, and just let everyone back home think he’d been killed by the locals.

Then he just settled in, enjoyed the quiet life, and stayed away from the humans … though that became more difficult as time passed. I figured he’d be discovered on occasion and have to befriend the locals to avoid any trouble if he couldn’t get away from them without fighting. Might’ve eventually become a local urban legend.

And because Defiant Blade began recording her hunts and editing the videos and posting them online as a way of passing time between hunts, passing them off as short indie films made with elaborate costumes and hefty special effects, sooner or later Dude!Yautja would see one of them. And when he figured out what was going on, his instant reaction would likely be along the lines of, “Oh, fuck me, if I ever run into her, I’m dead!”

So, of course, it’ll have to happen at some point. Should make for an amusing scene, as well as some character development for DB, since it shouldn’t take her long to figure out why he refuses to fight back and just keeps trying to run away from her.

Something else that popped into my head a long while back is that, sometime later on, after she’s been interfering with other Yautja’s hunts for a while, she discovers evidence — say, the remains of a buried underground city — that the Yautja originated on Earth. Leading to the realization, “No wonder they keep coming back here all the time. They’re from here!”

One other idea I had was that it could be fun as all hell if DB encountered Naru. Wouldn’t make any sense because Prey was set in the the 1700s, and Defiant Blade takes place somewhere around the 2050s. I’d have to bring in some time-travel shenanigans to make it happen, like one of the spacetime rifts that crop up so much in some of my novels. Or … a really weird possibility that came to mind a while back was that Naru falls through a crack in reality similar to how people no-clip into the Backrooms, and has to figure out what’s happening and navigate her way through it until she can find her way back to reality … only to discover that several centuries have passed while she was outside of time and space. Which would, of course, lead to her meeting DB, and then wacky hijinks would ensue.

The reason I think Naru would be a cool character to do this with is because of how intelligent she is. In the movie, you can see her figuring out how the Predator‘s tech works and how to use it against him. So it’d be so much fun to see her get dropped into other out-of-this-world situations that she’d have to figure out on the fly. Because she’s already demonstrated that she can. And it’d be fantastic to see her end up meeting DB, having to be convinced that they’re not enemies, and ultimately working together.

Ah, I’d love to pitch this to Marvel Comics, but it looks like they don’t take submissions and there’s no way they’ll ever see this post, or the earlier one. Guess I should’ve had the idea back when Dark Horse still owned the Predator comics, heh. Well, that probably wouldn’t have worked, either. That’s just not how my life works.

Well, if nothing else, I can always put the story up on Fanfiction.net … if I ever finish it.

I really gotta stop trying to work on so many different things at once …